Everlasting Hope
by CharmHex01
Summary: After the war, Harry and his friends decide to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to attend their seventh year, which they missed because of the raging war against Voldemort. Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy, long term bully at Hogwarts, also returns, and finds that, after the war, his perspective of the wizarding world has changed significantly…
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1- Returning**

**A/N: This is my first attempt at writing a Dramione fanfiction, and my second ever fanfiction, so it might not turn out great. I'm just trying out new ideas, and so I decided...Draco and Hermione... let's give it a try. So its like an experiment to me. It'll be great if you would read it and review it to tell me how you think it is.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Harry Potter. That belongs to J.K. Rowling. I am not her, so therefore, I do not own the wonderful world of Harry Potter.**

* * *

Hermione Granger bid her parents, Jean and Ian, farewell as she approached the barrier which would lead to Platform 9 ¾ at King's Cross station. She cheerfully hugged each of them, promising to send them owls during her term.

As she ran toward the barrier, she felt a deep sadness at having to leave her parents again. After the war, she had travelled to Australia with Ron and Harry to find her parents and restore the memories. They had been successful, but now Hermione felt guilty at having to leave them so soon.

She looked around to find her friends, who had decided to return to Hogwarts with her after much thought, and found them huddled together by the scarlet

Hogwarts Express. She ran over to them and tapped Ginny lightly on the shoulder.

"Hey," Ginny said, appearing delighted that Hermione had arrived.

Hermione smiled at Ginny and turned to Ron, "How do you feel about your little baby sister attending Hogwarts in the same year as you?"

Harry tried to supress the urge to laugh as Ron's ear began to turn a faint red.

Hermione looked around at the group. Neville was laughing at something that Ron had said. Neville. He had changed a lot in the last year. No longer was he the plump, forgetful boy they had met in their first year. Now, he was confident and his once dismal magical abilities had improved to challenge even Ron's magical abilities, though Herbology was still his strongest subject. Luna was still as dreamy as before and still supported the views of her father. But Hermione no longer thought of her as some kind of weirdo, instead treating her comments with respect, because she realised many of the things Luna Lovegood were true, and wise. Ginny and Luna were now in the same year as the others, as they were considered to be continuing normal education, while Ron, Harry, Hermione and Neville were considered to be repeating a year of school.

The castle had been magically repaired after the last battle, and was back to its former grandeur. Hermione looked around the station, there were first years who were being hugged and comforted by their parents, and students like them who had returned to repeat a year due to the disruption the war caused.

"Hermione, Hermione!"

A hand waved in front of Hermione's face, pulling her out of her thoughts. She found the owner of the hand and voice to be Ginny's.

"Yes?"

"Well, I thought you would be made Head Girl this year… are you?"

Hermione jumped, "Oh, Merlin! I forgot. Yes, I am actually," she revealed, smiling fondly at the memory of receiving the normal owl, but with a Head Girl's badge.

"Good job, Hermione!" Ron grinned, the colour from her ears gone by now.

"Of course it isn't surprising really…"

Hermione's mind drifted off as I thought about those who died defending Hogwarts and their beliefs. She thought of Lavender Brown, who she shared once shared a dormitory with, and was thankful that she was a Head Girl, so she would be living in the Head dorms. She didn't want to be reminded of Lavender's death when she slept in the dormitory, without Lavender, who she had grown accustomed to waking up and sleeping next to.

Some of the people here had already attended their seventh year during the war, like Neville, but had decided that their last year of education was dismal and wanted to try it again, learning the proper material, instead of the twisted material taught from the perspective of Death Eaters. The teachers against the Dark side had no choice but to teach the magic which Snape had ordered them to.

A horn blasted somewhere, startling Hermione, who was grabbing at her wand, until she realised it was just the signal that they should board the train now. She sighed in relief, and thinking to herself that a year on the run could really change the way you acted and thought. She thought of Mad-Eye Moody's imposter, and how he taught them to be constantly alert.

"Hermione, you go to the Head compartment, and we'll save a spot for you somewhere on ours, okay?" said Harry as they rushed off to find an empty compartment.

Hermione sighed and made her way to the Head compartment, wondering who was the Head Boy, hoping desperately that they weren't in Slytherin. She stepped into the still empty Head compartment and sat down while she waited for everyone to arrive.

She didn't have to wait long, and soon the cabin door opened to reveal the Head Boy. A sense of dread washed over her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2- The Head Boy**

**A/N: Here's another chapter to this story! Thanks go to readingaddict24, KelsierMockingjay, ShadowKissedDreamer, Liube and .Lines for either following, reviewing or adding this story to their favourites list, and especially to .Lines for doing all three. It made me really happy! SO please review this story, and tell me how I could improve it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, which belongs to J.K. Rowling. Any material you may recognise belongs to her, not to me. **

***Note: The first line in italics is just a reminder for what happened last in the last chapter. "..." means something spoken aloud. '...' means something though. It should be easy enough to figure it out though...**

**So enjoy now!**

* * *

_She didn't have to wait long, and soon the cabin door opened to reveal the Head Boy. A sense of dread washed over her._

The Head Boy looked at her with disgust.

"So… Granger… Head Girl I see…" he drawled in a bored tone.

Hermione's voice was filled with contempt when she replied, "I'd never had guessed that a ferret could become Head Boy… _"_

Malfoy stiffened at the mention of his short time as a transfigured animal, but was careful to compose his features to be indifferent.

Hermione ignored Malfoy and waited for the new prefects to arrive; telling herself that this year was going to be hard, sharing a dormitory with Malfoy! How could the headmaster think that _Malfoy _was a worthy role model? Model, she could understand, after all, he _was _quite good-looking – if you avoided his facial expression, but _role _model? No way.

'Wait, was I just thinking that Malfoy is good-looking?' Hermione thought to herself. She shook her head, 'No, I must be going bonkers, since when could Malfoy be classified as good-looking?'

* * *

"So… Hermione, tell us… who was Head Boy?" Ron inquired, trying his very best to ignore Harry snogging Ginny.

Hermione grimaced, "Worst Slytherin to ever exist," she sighed.

"MALFOY? You've got to be kidding! Who's the new headmaster?" Ron looked ready to explode.

Neville cried, "But that's awful Hermione! Glad I'm not you then!"

Harry and Ginny unglued themselves to join in on the conversation.

"What were you saying about Malfoy?" Harry asked, quite clueless.

Hermione answered him, "Head Boy."

"Head Boy? You mean the ferret? That Malfoy?" Harry wondered aloud.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Of course, _that Malfoy, _how many other Malfoys do you know?"

Luna piped up, "There aren't many Malfoy's in this school, and only one in seventh year…"

Harry shrugged his shoulders, "Just checking, you know… I didn't believe my ears…"

Hermione had tuned out on the conversation. She knew that she would be doing patrols with Malfoy, and also live in the same dorm as him. She sighed. How was she going to survive this year without blasting Malfoy apart?

* * *

"Firs' years here! Follow on! Here, fir's years!" Hagrid's booming voice could be heard be the entire school.

"Hey Hermione! Hear' you made it as Head Girl! Well done!" Hagrid grinned, waving his dustbin sized hands at Hermione.

Hermione smiled back, "Thanks, Hagrid!"

She trailed behind the others, chuckling at Ron who was extremely impatient with the crowd, complaining loudly that it took them too long to get to the Great Hall for dinner. When they finally arrived, Hermione sat herself between Ginny and Ron.

Soon, the old and patched Sorting Hat was place on the stool, and nervous first years could be seen lining up to try it on. Soon, the hat burst into song.

The school applauded when the Hat had finished, and Professor Sinistra, who was replacing McGonagall as Deputy Headmistress, who had decided to give up the position of Deputy Headmistress, choosing to stay only as Transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor House.

"Abbel, Samantha!" she called.

A skinny girl made her way up to the stool and placed the hat on her head.

"Hufflepuff!" the Hat exclaimed almost immediately.

"Ades, Hamish!"

The Hat considered the boy for a long time. At last, the burly boy was made a Slytherin, and the table on the right cheered loudly for their new addition to the house.

Finally, the sorting was over and a hush fell over the school as they waited for the new headmaster to appear.

The entrance to the door opened to reveal Professor McGonagall.

"What?" Ron exclaimed, "I thought she said she was only going to be Head of House and Transfiguration teacher! That means we'll have a new head of house!"

Hermione frowned. That meant McGonagall had chosen Malfoy as Head Boy next to her. Surely she knew of the enmity between her and Malfoy!

'Or maybe,' a voice in her head answered, 'maybe she wants you to work with people from other houses. Maybe she's testing you.'

"Yes! I'm starving!" Ron's exclamation signalled to everyone who was lost in their thoughts that the feast had started already.

* * *

Hermione made her way up the stairs to the Head Dorms, wondering what it looked like inside. There was a portrait of a fair lady sitting elegantly on a throne, and she couldn't help but laugh at the contrast to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password?" the lady asked.

"Err…" Hermione frowned. She hadn't been given a password for the Head dorms.

'Now what?' she thought glumly, when a masculine voice said, "Dragons and Shakespeare."

Hermione looked up to see Malfoy smirking at her, before pushing past her to clamber through the hole which had opened. Hermione clenched her fists to stop herself from grabbing her wand and hexing the arrogant ferret into oblivion.

She stepped through the portrait hole to see for herself what the Head dorms actually looked like.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3- The Head Dorms**

**A/N: I haven't updated in a long, long, long, long , long time. I haven't updated in months. But here's an update. Unfortunately, its so short that I'm nearly embarrassed to publish it. But its the holidays now so hopefully I can update soon to make up for my awful updating speed.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. All familiar characters and settings belong to J.K. Rowling. Nothing but my own sad characters belong to me. **

**And now read!**

* * *

_She stepped through the portrait hole to see for herself what the Head dorms actually looked like._

She surveyed the common room. It was quite large, and was symmetrical, but with different colour on each side.

'Why is a common room for only two people the size of the Gryffindor common room?' she wondered to herself.

Malfoy was lounging on a couch at the far end of the room, ignoring Hermione. Hermione looked around; there was another couch at the opposite end of the room, red in colour, with gold embroideries. She thanked Merlin that she was not expected to share a couch with the arrogant Slytherin. There were two large cherry wood desks beside the couches; each accompanied by a comfy, chair- the kind with the high back. Hermione thought that the common room looked rather funny overall. The decorations, carpet and furniture changed colour quite abruptly in the middle of the room. One side was the Slytherin colours of green and silver, and the other side was covered in red and gold. She figured that the red and gold covered side was where she would be most of the time.

Seeing as Malfoy looked as though he was not going to be making any conversation, she walked towards the staircase which led from the Gryffindor side of the common room to her bedroom. There was red four poster bed with a gold canopy, and Hermione thought it looked quite majestic compared to the shabby bed she was used to during her schooling at Hogwarts. She found her battered suitcase next to the bed, looking like a grub in its environment. She settled herself onto the large bed, making sure that she locked the door to prevent a certain ferret from spying in on her while she was asleep…you couldn't expect a war hero to be completely unsuspicious after all… soon Hermione drifted off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4- Lessons**

**A/N: Hi all! I'm back again...with another update! Isn't that exciting? And this chapter isn't short either...unlike the previous chapter. And also, the previous chapters were kind of written in Hermione's perspective, but this one focuses more on Draco's view.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all its characters belong to its author, J.K. Rowling. I am not making any profit, I am just writing for fun, an Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.**

**Now sit back... and enjoy a longer chapter...**

* * *

_Soon Hermione drifted off to sleep._

Draco Malfoy relaxed on the couch, eyes closed and head dangling off the arm of the couch.

'Granger? Who would choose Granger to be the Head Girl?' he thought to himself.

OK, he had to admit she wasn't stupid, beating him in practically every test, and she wasn't a squeaking Hufflepuff either, standing up to his mad aunt like that, even daring to lie though she was being tortured. The memory of her shrieking on the tiled floor of the manor still made him shudder. Though he was no friend of her, he knew her, and to watch his old schoolmate writhing on the ground of his own home was quite unnerving.

But why was he thinking about the past? Pointless really, he should be dealing with the problem at hand. He rose from his position on the couch and trudged up the stairs to his bedroom. Stairs. Why couldn't they just use magic and get rid of the stupid stairs?

He arrived at the door to his bedroom. In a neat handwriting, the door was engraved carefully, or probably magically, with _Draco Lucius Malfoy _in silver. Draco snorted in contempt for his father. Lucius. Really, he had started all the trouble in my life. Luckily he had been sent to Azkaban and sentenced to prison for the rest of his life for his crimes. Narcissa, on the other hand, has escaped prison when the famous Harry Potter had claimed that she has saved his life.

His thoughts turned to his poor mother, all alone in the manor with nothing but the house elves for company. He made a mental note to send her a letter after he finished unpacking his luggage. He turned the door knob and walked into the bedroom.

"Whoa…" he couldn't help the sound of amazement coming from his mouth.

Sure, it was like a shabby hut compared to home, but he spent most of the previous year living under fear, and most of the other years living in the Slytherin dungeons with the dimwits Crabbe and Goyle. So, this room was a welcome change indeed.

The room was high and had a large window to allow light to enter the room during the daytime. There was even a wardrobe opposite the bed, and a moderately sized writing table in front of the window.

He found his suitcase sitting next to the bed, and walked over to it, hanging his robes in the wardrobe, and placing all his stationery neatly on the writing desk. There was an empty cage on the window sill, where his owl usually sat, but Andoria had been killed in his sixth year by the Dark Lord as a punishment for Draco's failed attempts to kill the Headmaster.

Luckily, he had been given money by his mother to buy a new owl from Hogsmeade when they were allowed to visit the village, but until then, he would have to use the school owls.

Remembering his note to write to his mother, he sat down at the desk and found a spare piece of parchment to write his letter on. He magically charmed his quill with a charm his mother had taught him in the holidays which would allow the ink to last longer, a highly convenient spell which he had used every time he used a quill since then. He began to write.

_Dear Mother,_

_I have arrived safely at Hogwarts, so do not fret. I will be using a school owl to deliver this, as I am writing to you before I have even slept. The Head Dorms are extremely enjoyable compared to the dungeons I am used to. I think I have had enough of the dark to last me a lifetime and an afterlife. I do not know how the other Slytherins will be able to cope with living down there, honestly! All is well here, except for the Head Girl who I must share this otherwise perfect dorm with. _

_The Head Girl is none other than the Hermione Granger, I'm sure you know her. She visited our house during the war, though I must say, not under pleasant circumstances. Remember when Father always beat me when I returned from school? Well, it was because she beat me in every test. I cannot deny though, she is intelligent. _

_The Headmaster is now a Headmistress, and she's McGonagall, she used to be Head of Gryffindor, but now she's been replaced by none other than Bill Weasley, if the rumours are true. Bill is the Weasley, who worked for Gringotts, I am not sure if you have met him before, but he was attacked by Greyback the night Dumbledore died._

_I hope you are well, and that you do not miss me too much. Do not miss Father either; he was an evil human who destroyed our lives. _

_Best wishes,_

_Draco Malfoy, your son_

* * *

Malfoy looked around the tower. He had never been here before; Andoria had always been there for him when he needed a letter sent. Most of the owls were perched quietly, following Draco with their yellow eyes, but a few were zooming around, crashing into the walls of the tower. He chose an energetic barn owl, and tied the letter around its leg.

* * *

Draco opened his eyes, there was someone knocking on his door.

'Granger', he thought, 'What is she doing here?'

The bed groaned beneath him as he rolled over and jumped off the bed, heading to the wardrobe for appropriate robes to wear. He opened the door.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

She was standing outside his door, ready to go, eyeing his obvious groggy state critically.

"It would be nice if you were more polite, seeing as I came here to tell you that we have Transfiguration together in five minutes.

Malfoy snorted, "Have you ever learnt the order of things around here? It's breakfast first, and then lessons."

Granger glared back coldly, "Well, as we are in our seventh year and are preparing for NEWTs, there are morning lessons, before breakfast, but not today. Today, you missed breakfast, you lazy ferret."

Malfoy jumped, "What? Why didn't you wake me up for breakfast?"

"I thought my help would be unappreciated, but lessons can't be missed, now, you'd better hurry up. I don't want to be late, so I'm not waiting up. Goodbye."

And with that she stalked off, bushy hair flowing behind her proudly.

* * *

Malfoy cursed under his breath as he arrived outside the Transfiguration classroom. He was ten minutes late. He debated whether he should go in and risk the wrath of McGonagall, or miss lessons and risk her wrath later and missing out on possibly crucial information. He decided the first option was safer, so he held his breath and entered the classroom.

"Late, Mr Malfoy, for the first lesson of term. And Head Boy, too. Five points from Slytherin."

Malfoy seated himself at the back of the classroom, comforting himself with the idea that at least it wasn't more points, and that there was no detention.

"Now, we shall continue with the class. Mr Malfoy, you might as well know that we are having a revision lesson, revising the basics all the way from first year. There is no point in learning the advanced if you do not have proper foundation of the subject. So, who can define what an Animagus is?"

Malfoy looked up expectantly at Granger, who was bouncing in her seat with her hand raised. There was nobody else who had their hands raised.

"Mr Malfoy, do you know what an Animagus is?" Professor McGonagall's sharp voice rang out.

Malfoy smirked as Granger's hand went down. No doubt she was hating him right now. "An Animagus is a witch or wizard who can change their form into that of an animal at will."

"Correct, Mr Malfoy. Miss Patil…"

Malfoy started to tune out on the professor, choosing to study the students in the class instead. The fact that Longbottom was also in the class surprised him the most.

'What's he doing here? He didn't even make the OWLs, why is he in the NEWT class?'

He ended up concluding that being a war hero changed professors' view of you. He continued his study of the class. There was Potter and the Weasel, seated on each side of Granger. A few other Slytherin students were in the class, Blaise Zabini, who used to be his friend, but their relationship suffered greatly during the war…


End file.
